UNCLE! Anyone know of a good, cheap high-speed internet program?

grammaboodawg

grammaboodawg

Immortal
My server through work is going to have the plug pulled mid May. My dialup woes will switch back to Verizon since I don't have ANY cable options run out to my country home (no tv, no phone). I do have a dish for tv channels, but they want $60 a month JUST for the internet. It would cost me over $100 a month just for tv and internet. Not possible.

SO I thought I'd reach out to your brilliant people to see if you know of any other options I could check into.

I spend more time sitting and waiting for things to load and for recovery from being kicked out than I do posting when I'm at home. It became quite apparent during our party that this has got to stop!

Thanks guys!

*still trying to catch up with party posts on all boards!*
 
and use it for my current dialup; but the phone company (Verizon) does not have high-speed internet service to my home. No cables laid out where I am. 4 years ago, the local cable company said if I wanted to give them $1,500, they'd lay the 3/4 mile of cable from where the current cable ends to where I needed it to reach my house. *snort* They still haven't laid cable out here.

I have a satellite and the DISH network, but they're too expensive.
 
That should count for something!

I'm afraid I can't be of much help, as the only two cheaper options I know of (cable, DSL) aren't options for you.

Sorry - perhaps we should start a "Get Gramma DSL" fund?

Notta
 
but maybe there is a local company that does DSL towers. That's what we have out here in the sticks. It's a line-of-sight thing. Unfortunately, the installation was 200 bucks and the monthly fee is about 50 bucks. Another bad thing was that it was what was struck by lightning 2 Decembers ago and fried all the electronics in our house. (It sticks up 10 feet from our roof.)
Something like that may be all you can do if you can't get the phone company and cable company to cooperate. Our phone company supplies high speed internet up to a point about 2.01 miles away [:P] and you need to be no further than 2 miles away from the "box", according to the tech. Hence our getting the tower.
 
I'm about to show my techno-dumbness in front of everyone, though.

LOL

Who's your cell phone co, Verizon? Could you get one of the 3G adapter-card-thingies that go in your computer/laptop to adapt it to use the 3G network? I understand 3G is fast "like broadband". Haven't tried it myself yet.

Also I don't know about cost.

Maybe this wasn't too helpful, after all.

[crazy]

a.s.
 
*puts on geek tutor hat*

1) DSL-- this goes through your phone line. In order to get it you have to be within a certain distance from an access point. If Verizon doesn't do DSL in your area, you might look to see if other local phone providers do have DSL in your area.

2) Cable-- obviously, you can't use that one, but for sake of completeness, it does run over the cable TV lines, and is generally one of the faster options.

3) Fiber Channel-- I expect you don't have this in your area either if you don't have cable, but you can still look into it. Fiber is very expensive to run (as in laying the cable in the ground), but it's generally a cheaper-than-cable-or-DSL option and perhaps the fastest for residential use.

4) Satellite-- DON'T USE THIS EVER UNLESS YOU'RE DESPERATE. Satellite is freakishly expensive, and although you can get broadband speeds on your downloads, uploading goes at 14,400 bps (standard dialup is 56,000 bps nowadays) about the rate of a fax machine. Not something you usually hear either.

5) Cellular-- I'm not sure of the current costs on this, but it's worth looking into. Essentially, if you can get cell phone reception you can get cellular internet. This consists of a card that slides into the PC slot of a laptop, or that can be plugged into a USB port. It's not as fast as Cable, but it's still much faster than dial-up, and it has the advantage of being usable anywhere there's a cell phone signal. The biggest expense will be the card, but they might offer discounts.

That's about it for home user options. There are business options that are rather more expensive and generally a home user can't get them anyway.

Hope that helps.

Inferno.
 
or the choice was really made for me. The only options I had (that I could possibly afford), was either stay with dialup *upchuck* or satellite. I'm bummed that you've indicated that the downloading won't be very good, but it's got to at least be possible in ways it isn't with dialup.

The company I found that has service to my remote location will cost about $30 a month (dialup is/was $24), it uses the phone line but also has a satellite I'll be installing. If the satellite goes out, it automatically switches to dialup... then switches back automatically when the satellite is restored. I've also bought the 1-time pay for a call-waiting popup if someone is trying to call in. Otherwise, they get a busy signal. With my dialup, it would flux between busy signal or just kicks me off and the phone rings.

It's a 2-year contract for about $268 (plus $50 shipping) to get the package shipped to me and I install it myself. That saves me about $150 from the quotes I got of every and all options I checked into. So, it's the lesser of evils until they finally lay some cable or get dsl out here. It's GOT to be better than the 14 minutes I waited for TORn to load last night. grrrrr....

Thanks again, Inferno and all! I can't WAIT to get some serious posting done now that my 30 sec - 15 minute wait between posts to be GONE! *twitch*
 
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